The Cursed Prince

"Thank you," that was all Emmelyn could say. Right at that moment, she had decided to be nice to the man as she did all day today. After she heard from Mrs. Adler about the royal family's plight, she could feel deep sympathy, especially toward the queen.

That woman treated her so well, and it was hard for Emmelyn to hate her. Mars also was nice to her from the first time they met. He did threaten to have her beheaded on the plaza and whatnot, but now, knowing the man personally, Emmelyn was sure that he didn't mean it.

As for the king...

Well... Emmelyn had never met him and he was actually the one responsible for all her sufferings with his stupid political moves to invade all the other countries on this continent.

Emmelyn still held her grudge for the king and she couldn't let go of her revenge. She was feeling very, very conflicted.

"I actually wanted to know, why are your family so bloodthirsty?" Emmelyn decided to ask that all-important question to the prince.

All this time, she was at the receiving end of the Draec royal family's ruthlessness with their invasions. She lost her kingdom and everything dear to her. Imagine her shock, after traveling abroad for a year to learn and seek experience, and came back to find everything was in ruins...

All her family was gone...

She had come this far to avenge them, at the very least she deserved to know the reason, right?

"Bloodthirsty? What do you mean by that?" Mars asked her with furrowed brows.

He could kind of guess what she wanted to know but he needed to confirm it. The man stared at Emmelyn intently. Emmelyn tried hard to keep her tone neutral. At this moment, she no longer had enmity in her heart for this man in front of her.

So, she shouldn't lash out on him, until she could at least hear the answer.

"By bloodthirsty, I meant was all the wars that your country have waged over the past two decades. How many people had been killed, lands destroyed, children lost their parents..."

Mars let out a long sigh. He did ask that question to his father years ago. And once he knew the answer, he could understand why. Now, he hoped Emmelyn could also understand his father's perspective once he told her everything.

"The truth is, we don't always attack a country to get them under us. We would always send peace envoys to those countries and asked them to join our leadership. We did all kinds of things to make them join us. Some countries agreed on political marriages, that's why some of my cousins were sent to marry out and rule those other countries. Some agreed on some trade agreements, etc. Only those who rejected our offers would be dealt with violence," Mars explained. "You may see it as ruthless, but when it comes to power, it's either you become the leader or the follower. My father never wants to be a follower. That's why he would do whatever it takes to be the leader."

"Did you say political marriage?" Emmelyn asked the man.

Mars nodded. "Almost all my cousins were married out to secure power on our colonies. If you remember my trip to Southberry, my cousin, Athos, was one of the ones sent to marry a princess from the neighboring kingdom to secure their alliance."

Emmelyn remembered that the governor in Southberry was Mars' cousin. So, the man was also sent to marry a princess from the local royal family, and then he settled down in the new place to rule on behalf of King Jared?

That was quite interesting. Emmelyn wanted to ask Mars if his cousins were all okay with the arrangement.

"Don't they have the people they were in love with? I mean, your father understood what it was like to be betrothed to a girl he didn't love, yet he forced his nephews and nieces on political marriages?" Emmelyn shook her head.

"Everyone knows they have to be loyal to this country and be ready to do whatever it takes for Draec," Mars responded. "And it's not like they live miserably in those new kingdoms. They get to become the governors or the regents."

"What about love?" Emmelyn asked again.

"Love can be learned," Mars said. "Or, if the worst comes to the worst, and you can't love your spouse and the family you build with them, you can marry one and love another. One of my cousins brought his lover to the new kingdom to be his mistress while he was married to the king's daughter."

Emmelyn pursed her lips when she heard the man. Gosh... These people were truly weird and had sad lives, she thought. She couldn't fathom their loyalty to this scummy kingdom.

"You said, everyone knows they have to be ready to do whatever it takes for Draec..." Emmelyn narrowed her eyes and looked at the man earnestly. "Would you love one woman and marry another, if it was required from you?"

Mars nodded without batting an eye, "Absolutely."

Emmelyn could hardly believe her ears. Blind loyalty. That was all she could think of.

"If you.. someday fall in love with a woman, and have to choose between her and your country... as you said, would you love one and marry another?" She asked the man with an earnest voice. "Would you choose your obligation to your country over her?"

Mars went silent. This was really dangerous territory and he was not experienced enough with women to know the answer.

Would he tell her the truth? Or should he tell her what she wanted to hear?

"You know I cannot touch other women," he tried to dodge the question.

"We don't know that," Emmelyn said. "If the witch died, her curse will be broken and you will be free. She won't live forever. At some point, she will die of old age or sickness, or even accident and you will be a free man. When that time comes, you can touch any women you want. So, you might fall in love with one, and then comes a point where you have to choose between your love for her or your obligation to your country... What will you choose?"

"Why do you want to know?" Mars asked back.

"Do I need to provide reasons?" Emmelyn smiled faintly. She noticed his reluctance to answer her question. "Alright, since we are bound together for maybe a few years to come, because I will give birth to your children, can't I get to know you better? Am I not allowed to know the man I share my life with for a few years?"

Of course, you can, was what Mars said in his heart.

He felt joyful by Emmelyn's change of attitude. He noticed the girl became nicer and she could even have this conversation with him without anger to understand the reasons behind all the invasions.

This was great progress. Maybe later Emmelyn could see them being together for not just a few years until the children were born, but together as a family, forever...

"All right. I will answer your question," Mars nodded. "If I was given an ultimatum to choose one between the two. I will choose the one who doesn't force me to choose."

Emmelyn was stunned to hear the answer.

What a perfect answer, she thought.

It was only fair.

"Ahh.. I see," Emmelyn nodded in understanding. "By the way, I still don't understand the reason why your father was so eager to rule this continent... You said he did everything in his power to basically unite the whole continent under his rule, by either political marriage, trade agreements, or invasion. Is it just because he doesn't want to be a follower? Is he that hungry for power?"

"No.. actually, that's not the main reason," Mars replied.

"So, what is it?"

"My father had the same dream for a year after I was born. He saw a great war and our country was involved. The enemy was really strong and they almost destroy all our troops. He knew it was a prophecy since he got it every night for the whole year. My father took it as a sign that our country will be attacked by a powerful enemy and he wanted to prepare ourselves and become stronger so that we won't be annihilated."

Ugh.. that STUPID WAR AGAIN.

Emmelyn felt like she wanted to scream. Why did people take things like this seriously?

"How did he know that the war was between his country and a powerful enemy?" Emmelyn pursed her lips. She remembered Mrs. Adler said the same thing about a similar event, but obviously, Draec was not one of those two countries since they had different colors on their banners and uniforms. "It could be any other country."

"Because he saw our banners," Mars replied.

"That's impossible," Emmelyn retorted. "That's not your banners. The colors are different."

Mars furrowed his brows when he heard her. "What do you mean the colors are different? Do you know anything about that prophecy?"

Emmelyn immediately realized her mistake. She had accidentally let it slip that she had heard about the prophecy. Now, Mars must want to know more.

How could she avoid talking about Mrs. Adler?

Gosh, she hated wars so much, and hearing how a king waged wars to invade 22 countries over the past two decades just because of dreams didn't sit well with her.

And what if his dreams were wrong??